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Re: OT: sorta OT: cases: please help...

From:Elliott Lash <al260@...>
Date:Wednesday, December 5, 2001, 22:10
aniye nicole dobrowski:

> --- Patrick Jarrett froge sionk: > <snip> > > In english the > > Genitive > > would be using 's as in Mike's car. Or it uses "of" like "one of > > us." There > > are other signs also. > so the possessor would be in genitive case but not the possession? > that would explain a lot... > to make sure i actually understand this: > the monkey scratched his head. > so 'his' would be in genitive case, but head would be accusative (as > in the object of his scratching...?)... and of course monkey would be > nominative (i think i actually understand that one...:) > what about in the "one of us" example? would 'one' or 'us' be > considered genitive (and what would the other one be?)
Actually, this isn't a genitive, since it's not really possession. The "us" doesn't really possess the "one". This is what's called "partitive" one 1stplural-partitive or in Silindion (my conlang): ala hyalim-iksi one us-ABLATIVE-partitive particle. Hmm..perhaps mine isnt the best to show this, since partitive is not a case but something that can be used with most cases. But anyway, the partitive basically shows that something is part of a whole so that: one of us means that there is one person as part of the whole. er....does that help? <more snippage>
> > Instrumental: Used when talking about when something was > > accomplished with > > something. I dug a hole with a shovel. - with a shovel would be > > instrumental. > > > here are some of the examples my polish professor gave us: > 'i write with a pen'... ok that works 'pen' is in the instrumental > case, but the next example is: 'i am a student'... huh? what? > wouldn't both 'i' and 'student' be nominative?
Neep....I would hope so.... sorry can't help there! Elliott